There exists a wide variety of test clips, or test adapters, for packaged integrated circuits. Generally, these test clips are constructed to contact the terminals of a packaged integrated circuit which has been mounted on a circuit board. In this way, the integrated circuit may be tested while operating in its intended electrical environment.
Contact pins on the test clips are arranged to match the terminal footprint pattern of the packaged integrated circuit. The test clips must reliably contact each of the terminals of the integrated circuit and be firmly affixed to the integrated circuit during the testing.
Typically, these test clips have a separate set of connectors which are to be connected to a tester. In this way, the test clips act as an interface between the integrated circuit terminals and the tester leads.
These test clips are typically formed of plastic which is injection molded to define the body of the test clip, which includes the spacers used to separate and align the test clip contact pins.
Problems with prior art test clips include the fact that the contact pins on the test clip which contact the terminals of the integrated circuit have a limited minimum pitch due to the limited minimum pitch of the injection molded spacers. Generally, spacers having a pitch of less than 0.5 mm cannot be reliably formed using injection molding. As terminals on packaged integrated circuits are being formed to have smaller and smaller pitches, the present state of the art test clips are inadequate for these finer pitches.
Accordingly, a radical new technique for spacing the contact pins on a test clip is required to meet the needs of the industry.
Another problem with conventional test clips is that they do not securely attach to the integrated circuit package, so that the electrical contact between the test clip and the terminals of the integrated circuit is unreliable. Typically, prior art test clips rely on friction between the test clip contact pins and the terminals of the integrated circuit to maintain a grip on the integrated circuit package.
Accordingly, what is also needed is an improved means for securing a test clip to a packaged integrated circuit.